Record: 21-2 Overall, 6-2 MIAA
Current Streak: Won 7
AVCA National Ranking: No. 9

Day	Date	Opponent	Time	Location	Arena	Series Record	Video	Live Stats
Wed	Oct. 15	at Fort Hays State (9-12, 2-6 MIAA)	7 p.m.	Hays, Kan.	Gross Memorial Coliseum	FHSU 44-26	none	Here
Fri	Oct. 17	No. 10 Emporia State (22-1, 8-0 MIAA) | Game Notes	7 p.m.	Topeka, Kan.	Lee Arena	WU 32-4	Here	Here

Lady Blues look to stretch winning streak past seven as they play twice this week
Washburn will play twice this week as it looks to stretch its winning streak past seven games. The ninth-ranked Lady Blues will play at Fort Hays State Wednesday at 7 p.m. and then host No. 10 Emporia State Friday at 7 p.m. in Lee Arena.
   
The Lady Blues won three times last week to improve to 21-2 overall and 6-2 in the MIAA, tied for third. Despite their wins, including one over then-No. 13 Pittsburg State, the Lady Blues fell a spot in the national poll to ninth.
   
The Tigers are 9-12 overall and tied for eighth in the MIAA at 2-6 after losing two of three matches last week. The Hornets (22-1, 8-0) have won 19 straight and lead the league. This week's match will be the first for the Lady Blues against a top-10 team. Washburn is 2-2 against ranked teams this year.   

Notes of Interest
• Kate Hampson moved to first in career assists at Washburn, now with 3,963.
• The Lady Blues are 8-0 at home this year and 38-4 at home in the last three seasons.
• Monica Miesner is 45 kills away from moving into the top five in WU career history. She is looking to become one of two players in school history in the top five in kills and digs.
• The match against ESU will be the fifth against a ranked team in as many weeks and the first against a top 10 team.

About this week's opponents
Fort Hays State has traded wins and losses for its last five matches and hasn't won two straight since September 13. The Tigers are led in scoring by Lilian Rezende, who leads FHSU and the MIAA with 4.13 points per set. She's second in the MIAA with 3.75 kills a set.

Emporia State leads the MIAA at 8-0 and is 22-1 overall. The Hornets climbed to 10th in the nation and have won 19 straight since losing to Michigan Tech in the fourth match of the season. ESU is second in attack percentage (.262), kills (14.38) and assists (13.49). Arica Shepard leads the MIAA in kills with 3.78 per set and Ting Liu leads with 12.05 assists.

Lady Blues earn 20th straight top-10 ranking with No. 9 spot in AVCA poll
Despite a 3-0 week, including a win over a top-15 team, the Lady Blues fell one spot to No. 9 in the AVCA national poll released Monday. The Lady Blues play twice this week. First, Wednesday at Fort Hays State and second, Friday when this week's ranking sets up a top-10 battle as Washburn (21-2, 6-2 MIAA) hosts No. 10 Emporia State at 7 p.m. in Lee Arena.

The top nine teams in the nation were shuffled around and Washburn fell a spot, being passed by Nebraska-Kearney as the Lopers climbed into a tie for seventh with Western Washington. ESU moved one spot to No. 10, Truman remained 12th and Central Missouri 14th, and Pittsburg State fell to 15th after losing to the Lady Blues.

This is the 20th straight week WU has been in the top 10 and the 62nd straight time being in the top 25, dating back to week one of the 2004 season.
    
Hampson named MIAA specialist of the week after breaking Washburn's career assists record
Washburn setter Kate Hampson was named the MIAA specialist of the week after breaking the school's career assist record last week. The junior finished with 114 during the three matches to average 11.40 per set.

With her seventh assist in WU's 3-1 home win over No. 13 Pittsburg State Saturday, Hampson surpassed Lindsey Kersting (1999-2002 -- 3,915) as the school's career leader. She finished with 54 assists to bring her career total to 3,963, and added 11 digs, four kills and four block assists.

In a sweep at Missouri Southern Wednesday, Hampson had 32 assists and eight digs, while serving four aces on 27 attempts. She also had a block assist and a kill.

She hit .667 (4 kills, no errors, 6 attempts) and had 28 assists in a home sweep of Southwest Baptist, adding three digs and three block assists.

Lady Blues continue dominance in Lee Arena
Washburn went 17-1 in home matches last year and is 8-0 this year after winning twice last week. The Lady Blues went 52-12 in sets at home last year with 11 three-set sweeps. The only loss was a four-set defeat from Western Washington in the NCAA national semifinal.

The Lady Blues are 38-4 in the last three seasons in Lee Arena and 84-12 in the building in seven seasons under Chris Herron.

Washburn finished third in the nation last year with 688 fans per match and second with 12,381 total fans. Those totals were the highest in the MIAA. This year Washburn is averaging 447 fans through eight matches.

Herron earns 200th win at Washburn
Washburn head coach Chris Herron is 205-40 in his seventh season with the Lady Blues, making him the third active coach in the MIAA with at least 200 wins. He is already the school's career leader in wins and his .837 winning percentage is also the school's highest.

Overall, Herron is 280-69 in 10 seasons with an .802 winning percentage. He is currently the third winningest active coach in the MIAA and the 34th winningest coach among active NCAA II coaches. Herron went 75-29 in three seasons at Benedictine.

Only two other active MIAA coaches have more than 200 wins at their school. Peggy Martin, in her 33rd and final year at Central Missouri, has over 1,000 and Rose Shires, the 19-year coach of MIAA newcomer Nebraska-Omaha, has over 375 wins.

Herron's match against ESU this week will be his 100th MIAA match coached at Washburn. He is 77-21 (786) in league play.

Miesner moves up career digs and kills chart
Monica Miesner moved to second in career digs at Washburn two weeks ago and she currently has 1,702. Erica Cowhick is the school's leader with 2,464 from 2004-07.        Miesner moved to sixth in career kills at Washburn, now with 1,446. She's 45 kills away from tying Dani McHenry in fifth with 1,491 total kills.
   
Miesner is 286 kills away from the school record, held by Jill Gassen with 1,732 from 1998-01.
   
Miesner has 60 career double-doubles and needs seven more to tie assistant coach and All-American Dani (McHenry) Schmidt for first in WU history. She already has 89 double-figure dig matches, the second most in school history, and she's tied for third with 72 career double-figure kills matches.
   
The two-time All-American became Washburn's seventh member of the 1,000 kills/1,000 digs club last year. She is looking to become one of two Lady Blues to be in the top five in both kills and digs at WU, joining Angie (Simon) Bittner.
   
Miesner earned AVCA second team honors in both 2007 and 2005. She also earned first team all-MIAA honors those two years.

Freshman Lacy near the top amongst MIAA hitters
Freshman middle hitter Mollie Lacy is leading the Lady Blues with a .352 attack percentage and that total is the third highest in the MIAA. Lacy also led the Lady Blues during the Fall Classic with a .439 percentage, the third highest amongst the tournament field, and she got a spot on the all-tournament team.
   
Lacy has started every match and is averaging 2.74 kills per set. In MIAA matches she is averaging 2.92 kills with a .339 attack percentage.
   
Freshman middle hitter Mollie Lacy led the Lady Blues in points last week with 4.22 per set as Washburn won three MIAA matches. She tied for the team lead with 3.44 kills per set and led with 1.33 blocks. She also hit .338 during the week. Lacy hit .560 on Wednesday at Missouri Southern with 15 kills and one error in 25 attempts. She also blocked a season-high six shots that day with two solo blocks and four assists to total 19.0 points. Against Pittsburg State she had 10 kills and four assisted blocks for 12.0 points.
   
Lacy was named an AVCA High School Senior All-American her final year at Lincoln Pius High School (Neb.) and her team won two state championships her final two years. He club team, NVA 17 Red, was the 2007 national champion and she was named to the all-tournament team.

Shepard leading the team in in kills
Sophomore outside hitter Ashley Shepard leads the team with 3.02 kills per set. Last week she tied for the team lead with 3.44 per set and she had a double-double in the match against Pittsburg State with 18 kills and 14 digs. In MIAA matches she leads tih 79 kills and 3.29 per set.

Net Notes
• Stephanie Nitz moved to 12th at WU with 314 career blocks. She needs 40 to move to 11th.
• The Lady Blues are 20-0 this year when opening with a win and they have 15 three-set sweepts.
• Washburn has had a higher attack percentage than its opponents in all but one match and more kills in all but two.
• Washburn has 241 wins this decade. The school's winningest decade was the 1980s when the Lady Blues won 249 matches. However, WU had a .487 winning percentage that decade.

Coming up next
 The Lady Blues will play three times next week, starting October 21 at Northwest Missouri. They will return home October 24 to host Truman and October 25 to host Missouri Western.